nVent's Impact on the Planet Pillar

At nVent, our vision for our ESG Planet Pillar is: Responsible energy, waste and water management to help protect our natural resources. Being a good steward of the environment is integral to how we operate and working to improve our environmental impact is a priority throughout our company. We are proud of the progress we have made in our ESG Planet Pillar as we continue to progress towards our 2030 goals.  

Our Grass Roots Employee Resource Group (ERG) made an outstanding impact in 2022. Grass Roots strives to help nVent become an industry leader in modeling environmental responsibility by supporting sustainable practices. Some of its efforts highlighted in our 2022 ESG Report include eight Earth Day clean-ups across the globe, the development of a plastic-free challenge to reduce plastic consumption and a Commute Green Challenge, a three-month initiative that prevented 9,669 kg of CO₂ emissions. Grass Roots was our first ERG, and it plays a critical role in driving meaningful and impactful change across our organization. 

We are engaging our employees in our environmental sustainability improvement efforts and best practice sharing. Our Grass Roots ERG plays a critical role in driving meaningful and impactful change across our organization. Our global Environmental, Health and Safety, integrated supply chain and ESG teams work closely together on many projects, including our new ESG site assessment program. This program helps employees identify meaningful and achievable sustainability actions to take at their respective sites. 

“It is exciting to see employees across nVent working together to find innovative ways to reduce our impact on the environment and think responsibly about our use of natural resources,” said nVent Chief Financial Officer and Planet Pillar Executive Sponsor Sara Zawoyski “We will continue working to build a sustainable future.” 

Since our baseline year in 2019, we have reduced our CO₂e emissions by 31%. As part of our work to reduce our carbon impact, we completed the installation of solar energy panels in Tilburg, Netherlands and began a solar panel project in Straubenhardt, Germany which has recently begun operating. In our Anoka, Minnesota, location we replaced old battery technology for material handling equipment with new smart technology throughout the campus. Due to these projects, 13% of our total energy came from renewable resources, a 2% increase from 2021.  

In 2022, our normalized water usage decreased relative to 2021. This improvement was due, in part, to operational efficiency projects implemented at our sites. For example, at our location in Anoka, we produce reverse osmosis (RO) water, which is pure water with no minerals in it, for the washer system in our paint line. In 2022, we made improvements to automate water fill valves, including integrating timers into valves to ensure they are turned off when not in use. In Reynosa, Mexico, we made similar improvements to the RO equipment and added a new source of recycled water for the facility by recovering condensation from air handling units. We also automated washer tank valve controls to help use water more efficiently. Looking forward, we aim to reduce our water consumption through more water reuse in our manufacturing operations and more efficient processes. 

We also diverted 93% of total waste from landfills in 2022. nVent has made notable progress toward our Planet Pillar goals and strives to continue being a good corporate citizen.